Zero privacy is not the answer

Tuesday

Dec 4, 2012 at 6:00 AM

By Marc Deshaies

Barack Obama’s re-election victory over Mitt Romney affects not only taxes and health care. His next term could also improve our privacy. Had Mr. Romney been elected, his more laissez-faire approach to capitalism may well have been the death blow to Mr. Obama’s Consumer Data Privacy guidelines.

More, however, is needed. The guidelines need to be enacted into law. Mr. Obama’s political momentum in the wake of the election should be applied toward passing such legislation.

In 1928, Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis described privacy as “the right to be left alone.” Increasingly, we are not being left alone. Technology has contributed to more and more intrusion into our private lives. Our telephone calls are often being recorded. Video cameras watch our movements and can fine us for toll and traffic violations. Police patrol cars automatically scan our license plates, and our travel is monitored by tollbooth scanners. Some Texas schools track students’ attendance with computer chips. Browsers track our online movements while cell phones track our actual location, sometimes both at the same time.

Often, people’s poor choices result in a negative online presence. This can go far beyond posting embarrassing photos of a drinking binge on Facebook. In March, a former Rutgers University student was convicted of a hate crime after secretly recording his roommate kissing another man in 2010, ending in a tragic suicide. A teenager in South Hadley killed herself after being cyber-bullied on social networking sites and through text messaging, leading to an anti-bullying state law.

The problem with our technology is that it tends to multiply, amplify, and permanently record privacy breaches. Love letters sent years ago through the U.S. mail might still be in a box in one person’s attic. Recently love notes sent through gmail ended the otherwise illustrious career of General David Petraeus.

We need today’s anything-goes, Wild West approach to be reined in.

By default, our data should be private. We should not need to worry that the fifth page of legalese in an unread license agreement we clicked to accept relinquished our control of our own data. Corporate policies on privacy need to be written in plain English and give more, not less, power to individuals.

If users agree to less privacy in exchange for something of value, on a transaction-by-transaction basis, that’s fine. Apple has set a good example. Their iPhone lets users disable location services, plus asks whether or not to provide location on a case-by-case basis. We should “opt in” to revealing private information each time it is about to occur, not be expected to only avoid more privacy loss via an “opt out” after it is too late.

Big business may flinch in reaction to such restrictions. However, this type of regulation would actually benefit commerce. People would trust their technology if laws were written to protect them instead of allowing firms to maximize profit at the expense of our freedom to be left alone.

This is about choice. Facebook posts, tweets, and text messages are within the senders’ control. Voting behavior, purchases, and browser trails should be assumed private unless the consumer allows access and control. Social networking is now being accessed more and more by users on their mobile devices, which are location-aware and accessing cloud-stored data. Such technology convergence is exacerbating the problem.

More data is interconnected, cross-referenced, and used to manipulate people’s purchase and voting decisions. Part of Mr. Obama’s winning campaign strategy involved using a company called Aristotle which assembled hundreds of facts about likely voters. As shown on a Public Broadcasting Service Frontline television episode, Big Data cross-referenced voters’ registration status with seemingly disparate facts such as pet ownership and income. Complex algorithms crunched these facts into actionable results, such as phoning people and knocking on their doors at just the right time to convince them to vote.

Ironically, Mr. Obama should stop or at least limit the kinds of privacy intrusions that helped him get re-elected.

Things have gotten worse since 1999 when Sun Microsystem’s Scott McNealy said “You have zero privacy anyway. Get over it.”

He was half right: we do not appear to have any privacy. The way to get over it is to fight it. Let’s pursue legislation now to safeguard consumer data privacy.

Marc Deshaies is a manager in information technology in the health care field.